I spent this afternoon exploring Manly in Sydney’s North. While the photos show a beautiful day (it was clouding over by the mid afternoon) the temperature was still quite cool. Bring on summer.
Read morePhotos: Wentworth Falls and the Valley of the Waters
Today I had time to spend hiking in the Blue Mountains at Wentworth Falls and the Valley of the Rivers. If you like waterfalls this is waterfall paradise. To add even more drama to the day we had a sudden rain storm come up the valley bringing massive winds and then we lost one of our party for about 15 minutes (they had walked ahead and failed to stop at a track junction).
Read more100% Pure Volcanic Homeland – Photos from NZ Trip July 2010
Below are some of the photos I took on my recent week in NZ. The location of the photos are Taupo, Orakei Korako and Rotorua.
Read moreA Relaxing Day Out – Pindar Cave Hike
On Sunday I went with the University Outdoor’s Club on a hike to Pindar Cave in the Brisbane Water National Park just south of Gosford.
Overall the walk was not too challenging, it is 14km and we completed the hike in 5 hours 40 minutes which included three stops for morning tea, an extra long lunch, and me being smacked in the eye by a swinging tree branch. With the exception of a 100 vertical metre climb at the start of the track the route is relatively flat and easy going. The only caveat to this is in places the track is very narrow and almost overgrown which just adds to the fun.
Read moreSydney Biennale
Today I went to the 17th Biennale of Sydney. I had planned to go when it opened but I kept on putting it off when I got to the weekend as I was lazy, or the weather was bad or I was busy with other events. But this morning I woke up and instead of being lazy I forced myself down to Circular Quay and onto the ferry to Cockatoo Island.
Read moreA Draw – All Whites Best Ever World Cup Result
I have to confess I am not much of a sports nut (except for motorsport), for the most part I am very much a fair weather supporter and only care or watch a particular sport if NZ is doing particularly well.
The current NZ team that is doing very well is the Football/Soccer team, The All Whites. This is the first time in 28 years they are playing at a World Cup, and last night they earned their first ever point at a tournament with a draw against Slovakia.
To watch the match I went down to the office FIFA Fan Fest site at Darling Harbour, to join with ~2,500 fellow supporters to watch the match. The balance of NZ Supporters to Slovak supporters was probably 10:1, however, the Slovaks know how to chant and cheer on their team while the NZ supporters are passionately quiet.
That was until the 93rd minute of the game when NZ scored and leveled the game 1-1. Personally I have never screamed so hard in my life and my ears are still ringing even now from the amount of noise that was generated as a result of celebrations of the goal. The last few seconds of the game following the goal were not heard as the NZ supporters continued to scream, yell and dance while the Slovak supporters who had been so vocal all game when quiet.
It was a lot of fun to be around people so passionate and it is a pitty that NZ never seems to put on public gatherings like this to support its teams, instead people are confined to their couches at home watching Sky, or at the local pub.
Vivid Sydney
Last night on the way to watch the All Whites game at Darling Harbour I detoured through the Opera House to see the sails of the building be lit up as part of the Vivid Sydney festival of light.
The different patterns and shapes projected onto the opera house are awesome and poor photos from my cellphone simply don’t do it justice. If you are in Sydney go and check it out.
Four Days in Cairns – Tropical North Queensland
I have just spent the last four days on holiday in Cairns and the surrounding area.
Read moreByron Bay and Nightcap National Park – 48 hours in Paradise
It is not often I will call a weekend away Paradise, normally awesome, cool, wicked, fun, great, brilliant would suffice but in this case Paradise is the only word that can truly describe just how much fun and enjoyment I had.
Read moreGetting USB Browser Mice to work in Vista
I have had this issue with a number of mice and a number of different computers now. Some older USB mice will not work when you plug them into Windows Vista. What happens is a dialog appears saying installing software and then fails saying unknown device.
The fix for this as I just found out this morning is quite simple:
- Click on start
- Right click on computer
- Select properties
- On the left side of the dialog that comes up select device manager
- Scroll down the list of devices to the known device
- Right click and select Update Driver Software
- Select chose from a list of drivers
- Select Human Interface Device
- Select HID compliant mouse
- Click okay and the mouse should now work
Simple. And Windows had the drivers to make it work all along! Sometimes Windows does some really simple things wrong and as a result is just so frustrating. It is a mouse it should just work!